Here are the highlights of Thursday’s menswear collections for spring-summer 2018 at Paris Fashion Week.

LOUIS VUITTON’S GREAT ESCAPE

The sun beat down on VIP guests attending Louis Vuitton’s open air show inside the storied Palais Royal gardens.

If some were dreaming of being whisked away from the stifling heat in the French capital, they were in luck. Designer Kim Jones channeled wanderlust and the magic of isolated world archipelagos for Vuitton’s next spring-summer collection.

It was a welcome moment of escapism.

Starting with Hawaii, Jones reimagined the familiar Aloha shirt with a shiny sheer outer layer that evoked the sparkling ocean.

But his collection was more about island-hopping and a sense of spirited adventure than any one geographical location.

“I was inspired by the idea of an island and of travel. Of moving easily from place to place, and experiencing these different pockets of civilization,” Jones said.

Coats came sleeveless or had long arms that obscured the hands. Some jackets were rendered off-kilter and otherworldly by tiny silhouettes that scrunched up the models’ torsos.

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ISSEY MIYAKE’S DESERT TREK

It was man versus the elements for Issey Miyake.

Designer Yusuke Takahashi imagined a journey into the inhumanly hot desert for the spring-summer collection.

And sweating fashionistas — who fanned themselves with program notes to defend against the sweltering Paris heat wave — didn’t need to exert themselves further trying to imagine how that desert might feel.

Loose double-face cotton jackets, sometimes in a cross-over style, were presented in earth colours. Below, baggy cotton North African-style pants with pleats and a floppy waist fastening followed pants cut above the ankle with a rippled texture that evoked the roughness of sand.

Later, the desert was suggested again in the rippled patterning on some decidedly un-summerlike dark coats.

One enveloping, oversized, shin-length coat provoked moans of sympathy for the male model from some guests in the front row.

But the program notes reassured that the fabric was “lightweight and designed with functional elements in mind.”

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This story has been corrected to show that Vuitton designer Kim Jones is a man, not a woman.